I’m going to make up for the lack of photos in the last post…………….
I’ve finished the exhaust, I was not happy with the stock back box, it sounded quite tinny and still felt restrictive, so I picked up a second hand powerflow box with a damaged pipe and shocking welds. So my plan was to mate this back box with the mega bore I already have.
I cut the rear pipe off in its entirety so there would be no flow restrictions.
And then proceeded weld the 2.5 inch pipe to the rear of it.
This has made a significant difference to how the car goes, not only does it sound sweet, but its way quicker, I’d never have thought a back box could be so restrictive.
Just before I put the car in for its MOT a while back there was a rattle from the rear end, this turned out to be the rear brake splash guard, which was so rotten I removed it by just pulling it away, fortunately I had a spare lying around, so I painted it.
Then I realised that it was a non ABS guard, so it was missing a cut out, so I removed that piece, here it is next to the remnants of the old guard, not much left!
And on the car.
I finished off the roof lining:
I also adjusted the sunroof, which has never sat 100% flat, a couple of washers later and its pretty good now.
Now I’ve had some vibration issues at 65mph+, I always thought it was wheel balancing so I went out and bought some new tyres all round.
The vibration remained.
So then I removed all the engine mounts and checked them over.
The vibration remained.
So then I swapped the offside CV joints as I could feel minor play, getting the outer one off was a challenge, and we had a smashing time.
The vibration remained.
So then I moved onto the nearside joints, again minor play, unfortunately the inner CV on that side is very hard to get hold of, with only one listed on ebay at £90! It turned out cheaper to get a full shaft from Rockauto for £70 all in. This also saves me the job of pissing around with boots and grease.
The vibration remained.
The only thing left I could think of is the steering rack, now flicking through the manual I noticed that there is a rack guide that is to be periodically adjusted to remove slop, this requires a special tool which is a 43mm spanner, I could not get hold of one anywhere, but this should do the job instead.
After adjustment, the vibration was gone.
I bought some number plate stickers:
To go with a new front plate:
And a nice rear plate too.
My bonnet has always let the car down and I had been on the hunt for a replacement.
Fortunately, Mart609 had a mint one in storage in the right colour in his garage, so a 2.5 hour drive over to his has us doing this:
I decided to fit clear indicators to the wings and front end:
I picked up some replacement rear seats which were in near mint condition, fitted:
I decided to replace the steering wheel as I have always found it to be a little on the large side, I bought a boss and converted it to work with cruise control so I can have my pick of wheels.
I bought some uprated anti roll bar bushes, and proceed to paint the brackets that they came with.
Here are the roll bars that I have had sat in the shed for the last 18 months.
And painted:
I fitted a remote central locking kit, which I managed to fit completely in the drivers door, and also wired this to automatically fold the mirrors when I lock it, its pretty cool.
Random shot of the control fob and super cool keyring:
I’d had some intermittent hesitation whilst cruising and figured it was fuel related, first I swapped the fuel filter and I replaced it recently, but this did not solve the issue, so I moved onto the o2 sensor, which had also been replaced recently.
First I took it off and cleaned it with carb cleaner, this solved the issue for about 200 miles, before it returned, so I bought a quality replacement o2 and fitted, which has now fully solved the issue.
I picked up some air-conditioning seals for the system, yet to use.
Bought lots of random clips:
Fitted a new air intake sensor as it’s one of the only bits that still original to the car:
Some new coolant, it’s been 2.5 years since the last change.
Some new heater hoses as last time I felt mine I could feel them cracking.
A new OEM rocker cover gasket and PCV grommet:
They will be used when I’ve spruced one of these up:
More later…………….
, sorry the exhaust wasn't to your liking mate hope you were able to use some of it. I don't think it was all that loud. Just caught up on this and read all the way through again.
Shame it took so much to solve that vibration issue, but at least you won't need to replace those items for a while 
